To enable problem determination and to provide indications of progress, many data processing systems display a status code or word that indicates what activity is currently taking place. As tasks are completed, the status code or word is changed to reflect the next activity that takes place. If a particular activity fails to complete, the user becomes aware because the status codes stop changing. Moreover, by observing the status code, the user can determine which activity failed to complete, and thus can focus problem diagnosis activities on the proper system component.
However, if there is only a single location for displaying a single status code or word, then there is a problem in determining what should be displayed when these activities are occurring in parallel. The prior method for changing the display each time a new activity is started does continue to provide information on the progress of activities. However, it is inadequate for problem determination, because if any activity fails to complete, the code or word displayed is for the activity that was the last to be started, rather than for the activity that has actually failed to complete. This leads to improper diagnosis of problems, laying blame on the wrong activity, and lengthening problem determination time.
More specifically, such a status code display is used on RS6000 systems implementing the AIX operating system, available from International Business Machines Corp. When the configuration manager is operating, the device being configured is displayed in the status display. A problem occurs when the AIX operating system is configuring several attached devices in parallel, because it is often not possible to determine which device is having problems being configured. This problem is magnified when there are several hundred devices that need to be configured, and are done so in parallel.
Therefore, there is a need in the art to provide a status display that provides information on the progress of parallel activities, but also ensures that if any parallel activity fails to complete, its code or word will eventually be displayed.